James comes of age

David James believes he has finally lived up to the expectations of the many people who felt he was destined to become England's number one goalkeeper from an early age.

James will go into Euro 2004 as his country's first-choice stopper for the first time in a major tournament.

The potential of the former Watford player looked as if it may not be fulfilled after an unhappy time at Liverpool when he acquired the infamous 'Calamity James' tag.

By his own admission James took it for granted that he would eventually become an England regular and failed to work hard enough at his game.

But the move to Aston Villa in 1999 and the finding of a goalkeeping coach in Paul Barron who believed totally in his ability was the turning point for James.

Great expectation

Now the hopes of the nation will be placed on the shoulders of the Manchester City player as he attempts to to keep out the likes of Thierry Henry and Co in the Euro 2004 opener with France on June 13.

James, who will be in action on his home ground for the friendly international with Japan, said: "I have taken stock of what I am about. The problem in the past was that everything was taken for granted.

"A lot of people believed I was capable of becoming England's number one and I took it for granted that I was going to do that without having to do the hard stuff which was working at it.

"The worst point was the 'Calamity James' time of my career when I was 26-27 and I was trying to equate how I would be able to get back into the England team.

"The move to Aston Villa was the right move at the right time. If I had left it a year later I possibly would have missed out on the beginning of Mr Eriksson's reign.

"Once I had made the move I was confident in terms of where I could go and what I could achieve.

"With taking on psychologists, training properly, dieting properly, my whole approach to football had made me fulfil what a lot of people believed I could achieve."

While James may now be content with life, he admits it is a concern for the future of the national side that only a handful of Premiership goalkeepers are English.

James said: "If you look at the Premiership, we have got four or five English keepers. We have still got Paul Robinson after moving from Leeds to Tottenham and gained Robert Green from Norwich but we have lost Ian Walker of Leicester.

"We are not getting any more English keepers which is going to make it difficult to get a good bedrock of them for the future. It is a concern."

James is not surprised to see his French counterpart Fabien Barthez still making an impact at international level after the unhappy end to his spell at Manchester United before returning to Marseille.

He said: "The guy has played in World Cup and European Championship finals and won them. With his experience, he is the sort of person you would want in the camp."